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Newest 10 Entries
| Question | How do I restore my Composr website from a backup? |
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| Answer | Composr backups come as .tar or .tar.gz files. Extract the archive using an extraction program like 7-zip or your web hosting control panel. To restore a full backup:
To restore incremental backups:
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| Question | What alternative backup strategies are available? |
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| Answer | Many web hosting control panels include built-in backup features that operate at the system level, often offering higher reliability than web-based scripts. Ensure you back up both files and the database. For database backups, you can use tools like phpMyAdmin, which allows you to export your database as a .sql file. |
| Question | How do I create a backup of my Composr website? |
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| Answer | Composr offers a built-in backup addon accessible from Admin Zone > Tools > Backups. You can choose between full, incremental, and database-only backups.
The addon allows scheduled backups or manual backup generation. It is recommended to download backups to a location outside your web server for better security. Note: The Composr backup addon is limited by server-side PHP capabilities and might not always be reliable. Consider using alternative backup strategies offered by your web hosting control panel for increased reliability. |
| Question | Why are backups necessary for my Composr website? |
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| Answer | Disasters like hard disk failures, data corruption, and unexpected errors can happen at any time. A good backup strategy helps you recover your website and its data in case of such events. Backups can also help you roll back to a previous state if needed, such as after a failed upgrade or accidental changes. |
| Question | How can I control the privacy of member profile fields? |
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| Answer | You can control the privacy of member profile fields through the "Member privacy controls" configuration option. If you enable the "Extended privacy option control", you can fine-tune visibility settings for each field. Otherwise, you can set simple access levels (e.g., not at all, to members, to friends, to everyone) for each field. |
| Question | What is the difference between a Composr member and an author? |
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| Answer | A member is someone who has created an account on your Composr website and can log in. They have a unique member ID and username, and can interact with the site's features. An author is someone who creates content for the site. They may or may not be a member. For example, you might have an author who submits articles via email but never actually visits or joins the website. |
| Question | What advanced techniques are available for dealing with persistent spammers who repeatedly create new accounts? |
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| Answer | Composr's advanced banning features target sophisticated human spammers. Automatic bans can be configured to block users based on specific strings in their posts, while reasoned bans display customized messages to banned users, potentially deterring them. These measures, coupled with the ability to investigate users via IP address analysis, offer robust tools for managing persistent threats. You can configure advanced banning under Admin Zone > Security > Configure advanced banning. |
| Question | How does Composr handle user banning and what options are available? |
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| Answer | Composr offers various banning mechanisms. You can ban members by editing their accounts (ban member tick box), preventing logins while still allowing guest access. IP address banning blocks access from specific IP addresses or ranges (Admin Zone > Security > Members > Investigate user to see their IP addresses and flag certain ones for banning). You can also restrict member submissions, or you can effectively "suspend" users by assigning them to a usergroup with minimal privileges (e.g. probation). |
| Question | What is the "Warn Member" form and how can I use it to handle rule violations? |
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| Answer | The "Warn Member" form provides a centralized interface for addressing user misconduct. You can issue formal or off-the-book warnings, apply punitive actions like IP bans, usergroup changes, or probation, and even delete content or charge points. This form allows you to document reasons for actions, improving transparency and consistency in moderation. This tool can be accessed on a member's profile as staff, under Audit > Warn member. You can also review their warnings history on their "Standing" tab. |
| Question | How does Composr track user activity? |
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| Answer | Composr logs IP addresses for various actions like guest posting, page views, and content submissions. This data helps identify potential spammers and track user behavior. The "Investigate user" module provides tools to analyze IP addresses and gather additional information about suspicious activity. |
Top 10 Entries
| Title | Third party integration |
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| Description | Support for integrating popular forum software: See our download page for a list of supported forums. Share login credentials: Login to the Composr site with the same usernames/passwords as your forum. Share usergroups: Control website access based on someone's forum usergroup. Emoticon support: The emoticons on your forum will also be used on your website. |
| Title | Stay on Top |
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| Description | (Conversr only) Virtual Forums: Find posts made since you last visited or within a time frame. Remembers your unread posts even if you frequently change computers Recent activity: See what topics you recently read or posted in Unanswered topics: Find which topics have not yet been answered RSS and Atom support |
| Title | Conversr Forums |
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| Description | The usual: Categories, forums, topics, posts, topic polls, announcements / pinning, sinking, quick reply, topic closing Forum and Topic tracking: Receive notifications when new posts are made on monitored topics and forums. Password-protected forums Present an 'introductory question' which members must answer or agree to before accessing a forum. Full moderator control: Determine who may moderate what forums. Inline personal posts: Whisper to members within a public topic; only those members will see the post. Over 50 bundled emoticons: Also, support for batch importing new ones Multi-moderation: Record and perform complex routine tasks; make post templates for those tasks. Mass-moderation: Perform actions on many posts and topics at once. Post preview: Read a topic's first post directly from the forum-view. Also see the latest posts when making a new post. Highlight posts as ‘important’ |
| Title | Membership |
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| Description | (These features pertain to Conversr only) Profiles: Browse through and search for members, and view member profiles. Multiple usergroups: Members can be in an unlimited number of different usergroups. They can also ‘apply’ to join new ones. Social networking: Create and browse friendships. Custom profile fields: Allow your members to add extra information which is relevant to your website (or to their subcommunity), and members can set privacy settings on them. Promotion system: Set up a usergroup rank ladder so members advance the ranks through their rank points. Members can view rank on their profile rank tab including unlocked and unlockable privileges. Private Topics: A special kind of private messaging system between 2 or more members. Think 'on-site e-mail inbox'. Invitation-only websites: Restrict registrations from the public; existing members can invite others to join. Allow members to create and manage clubs (personal usergroups). Avatars: Include avatars that members can pick from, or allow members to upload their own. Member signatures, photos, and personal titles Users online: See which members are currently online (unless they logged in as invisible) Account pruning: Find and delete unused accounts, or merge duplicate accounts, based on defined criteria. CSV files: Import and export members using CSV files, including support for automatic creation of custom profile fields and usergroups – great for migrating data |
| Title | Support Tickets |
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| Description | Users can communicate with staff privately through Support Tickets. Assign to individual staff: Includes the ability for staff members to “take ownership” of raised issues, and for staff to discuss. Allow users to e-mail in their tickets and replies to a designated e-mail address Expanded access granting: Grant third party members access to individual tickets. FAQ integration: Automatically search FAQs before opening a ticket. Multiple ticket types: Set up different types of support tickets, with different access levels and fine-grained ticket notification settings. Anonymous posting: Allow staff to post anonymously or as a designated support operator account so that customers don't always expect the same employee to reply. Merging: If customers open multiple tickets for the same issue, you can merge them. Closing: Let customers close tickets that are now resolved, or do it yourself. Filtering: Filter the tickets you see by status and ticket type. |
| Title | eCommerce and Subscriptions |
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| Description | Paid membership: Sell access to sections of your website, or offer member privileges. Shopping cart for running an online store Extendable framework: Programmers can easily add new product types to sell, or payment gateways / tax services / shipping providers. Multiple payment gateways: Accepts payments via PayPal or other gateways developers may add, and manual transactions (cash/cheque). Invoicing support: Including status tracking and online payment tracking. Basic accounting support: Input your incoming and outgoing transactions to get a basic ledger, profit-and-loss, and cashflow charting. Currency conversions: Perform automatic currency conversions within your website pages (requires an API key). |
| Title | Featured Content |
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| Description | Random quotes: Put random quotes (e.g. testimonials) into your design. Awards: Showcase your most popular content, and optionally award the submitter with points. Tags: Set keyword tags for content and display tag clouds. Recent content: Automatically feature links to your most recent content (via main_multi_content block). Show website statistics to your visitors (via stats graphs or page hit counters). Random content: Feature random content from your website specified via a sophisticated filtering language. |
| Title | Newsletters |
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| Description | Automatically create newsletter issues highlighting your latest content Double opt-in: Prevent false sign-ups by asking subscribers to confirm their subscriptions. Host multiple newsletters: Visitors can subscribe to the ones they want. Flexible mailings: Send out mailings to all members, to different usergroups, or to subscribers of specific newsletters. Welcome e-mails: Send multiple welcome e-mails to new users automatically, on a configurable schedule (Conversr-only). Bounce cleanup: Automatically clean out bounces from your e-mail list. Unsubscribe: Recipients can easily unsubscribe from newsletters through an unsubscribe link provided in the e-mail. Change settings: Newsletter subscribers can change their subscription settings on-site. Drip sending: Prevent overwhelming your mail server or outbound limits. |
| Title | Searching |
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| Description | Choose what is searchable Boolean and full-text modes Keyword highlighting in results Search boxes to integrate into your website Logging/stats OpenSearch support: Allow users to search from inside their web browser. Results sorting, and filtering by author and date Search within downloads: Including support for looking inside archives. Composr fast custom index: Support full-text searches in instances where your database does not |
| Title | Banners |
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| Description | Multiple types: Each one can specify its own width-by-height (e.g. skyscraper). Smart banners: Integrate text-banners into your content via keyword detection. Broad media compatibility: Image banners, external banner rotations, and text banners. Determine which banners display most often Run a cross-site banner network Hit-balancing support: A site on a banner network gets as many inbound hits as it provides outbound clicks. Targeted advertising: Show different banners to different usergroups. Track banner performance Use the banner system to display whole sets of sponsor logos or partners Supports Geotargeting Periodic content reviews: Reminders to check (or remove) banners |